From the life of the white clergy of the royal villages

Contents No. 1. Letter of commendation from Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible to Ilyinsky priests and deacon No. 2. Petition of priest Fyodor to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich No. 3. Petition from parishioners of the Church of Elijah the Prophet to Alexei Mikhailovich No. 4. Petition to John and Peter Alekseevich of Archimandrite Tarasius, Jegumenya Paraskeva and others No. 5. Petition to the Sovereign and Grand Dukes John and Peter Alekseevich of the parishioners of the Church of the Prophet Elijah No. 6. Petition to the Tsars John and Peter Alekseevich of the Church of Elijah the Prophet Priest Gabriel The everyday side of the ancient Russian white, especially rural, clergy is not sufficiently illuminated by the monuments of our antiquity. Most of these monuments represent the white rural clergy as a class that is almost no different from the lower tax-paying class - “tax people”, arable farmers; two or three aspects of its life, which apparently distinguish it from the latter, are so essentially insignificant that they are almost completely smoothed out before the similarity in all other features, the totality of which forms the type of the lower, tax class of ancient Rus'. Thus, in most cases, “priests” and other church clergy are depicted by these monuments as living in “monasteries,” i.e. isolated from villages - in graveyards, surrounded by church fields, hayfields and woodlands. But this purely external isolation, isolation from parishioners is in no way connected with the internal difference in lifestyle between the inhabitants of such a “monastery” and the surrounding villages and towns adjacent to it, as their “parish”, and sometimes “trade”: in daily, everyday life, both of them devote themselves to the same work and entertainment; Between them there is complete solidarity in views and interests. In public life with its uncomplicated relationships, the rural clergy also does not at all act as a special class element with its own rights and privileges. In society, in the “world”, the clergy are the same as laymen, only they enjoy some respect, as people necessary for “worldly affairs”: a priest - as a respectable person - when concluding worldly transactions, agreements, elections; his signature always ranks first among the signatures of other worldly people; deacon or deacon - as a public, secular secretary, “obliged to listen to worldly people in everything and in a letter from any sovereign matter and officials and from worldly people, also always be ready and not to write any formal letters in absentia and without worldly advice and without knowledge and to live in truth in everything, not to be friends with a friend, and not to take revenge on an enemy” 1. In relation to the higher, ruling classes, functioning in the world either as state authorities or as church authorities, the rural clergy is already completely on an equal footing with tax-paying people. It pays taxes and duties to numerous officials of its owner - the archbishop, various “collections” and “blessed martens”, “writing and soliciting duties, etc.”, assigns them “decimal sterns”, “autumn detours”; and these officials - “boyars, clerks, tiuns and ten-teners judge and administer the government incorrectly, priests are dragged and sold around the villages without mercy.” In general, the everyday color of the rural clergy of ancient Rus' is rather monotonous and dark. He barely rises above the burdensome, “black people.” Only here and there, in the grand ducal or royal villages, in the patrimony of the Grand Duke or Tsar, “Sovereigns of the Grand Duke or Tsar’s Bogomolye”, the white clergy is not only a “whitewashed” class, but also quite privileged. Very few monuments that give any insight into the social and zemstvo life of this class have survived to this day. In historical acts we find only one copy of the charter of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, given to the clergy of several royal villages 2. But the privileges calculated by it do not completely exhaust the rights to which the royal grant to the clergy of his royal pilgrimage sometimes extended. Below we present to the attention of readers a letter of grant from the same Ivan Vasilyevich, in which the clergy of the grand-ducal village are given the full rights of ancient patrimonial lands. Unfortunately, the original of this charter has not survived to this day. It came to us in a fairly accurate list, placed in the church chronicle of the Elias Church, Tver. gub., Novotorzhkovsky district. The five subsequent numbers of petitions from the 17th century, available in copies in the same church chronicle, are based on this letter and testify to its authenticity: on this basis we print them below in the appendix. The importance of the content, in the absence, in our opinion, of any internal signs of forgery in the proposed copy, prompted us to make it public 3. Privileges, or sovereign grants to the clergy of the Elias Church, calculated by the charter issued by us, are grouped into the following categories: 1. “Whitewashing,” or the release of two priests and a deacon of the Elias Church from the usual tributes and duties imposed on the clergy. In particular, the said clergy was exempt from payment even for the following three articles: a) “the lord’s tribute,” which went directly to the Archbishop of Novgorod every year on the Nativity of Christ; b) tribute in favor of ten-year owners and zaeschikov - “Petrine” and “Rozhdestvenskaya” and c) “team marten”. To cover these tributes, the Tsar commands that his steward of the village of Konstantinovskoye (the central point of the Grand Duke's fatherland, in which the Ilyinsky churchyard was located) annually pay two hryvnias of the Moscow account to the foreman or borrower of that district. In the previously mentioned letter of grant No. 149, the clergy of the royal villages listed there are not “whitewashed” from these tributes: all their property before the parish clergy on this point boils down to the fact, firstly, that in return for the usual tributes they pay once a year on Christmas Day at noon and secondly, that the indicated amount of tribute is collected from the parishes of these villages not by the bishop’s official, but Tsarsky - “our village”, who delivers the collected tribute to the bishop’s treasury. The clergyman of the Ilyinsky churchyard enjoyed a more generous salary. The tsar did not exempt the members of this clergy only from paying small fees incurred during the appearance and revision of documents - “recorded” and “examined”, but these duties, by virtue of the letter of grant, had to be paid by the clergy himself personally to the archbishop, and not through the latter’s borrowers or tithes, as was usually the case for “tax priests”. But the payment of two hryvnias for the above-mentioned tributes did not yet exhaust all the mercy of the royal grant; for along with this award, as a direct consequence of it, was further connected the release of the Ilyinsky clergy from the “arrival” of archbishop’s officials to him: “and the governors and tithes,” the letter says, “do not go to those priests and deacons and do not send for anything, nor do they accept their duties: neither the autumn, nor the winter district tithe, nor the finishing duties, nor prefabricated, nor blessed martens, nor beggars, nor sextons, nor toll duties.” 4 If this first grant, in essence, constitutes only a benefit for the princely patrimonial clergy, which the “tax priests” did not enjoy, then the next two, granted by charter, constitute positive privileges. They are the following: 2. Exemption of the parable of Tsarskoye Selo from the jurisdiction of ordinary bishops and princes judges, i.e. the bishop's governor and ten-tenant and the prince's clerk: the Tsarskoye Selo parable is under the jurisdiction of the archbishop himself - in spiritual matters, and the prince himself - in all other matters, or - their extraordinary delegates. Not only that; these delegates - the palace bailiff of the archbishop and the palace bailiff of the Grand Duke - should appoint only two terms a year for the hearing of cases: in winter - after Epiphany and in summer - after Peter's Day. Only during these periods of the year are clergy required to appear before the court of the palace bailiffs. And if it happened that the plaintiff or the opposing party in general, having appeared before the bailiff at a time other than the established one, received from the judge a decision in absentia in the absence of the defendant, or a “courtless letter,” then “that courtless letter,” the letter says, “is not a courtless one,” i.e. will not make any difference 5 . 3. The second privilege, granted by the charter to the parable of the Elias Church (two priests and a deacon), elevates these persons directly to the level of patrimonial owners - owners of land that is uninhabited (wasteland) and inhabited by peasants and grants all the rights that patrimonial owners had in relation to the latter. The Tsar bestows upon Ilyinsky the parable of a village: Ilyinskaya (or Ilyinsky Pogost), Penyagino, half of the village of Verbilovo and two wastelands: Poporyshino and Dorka. Without defining the right to own the wastelands, the charter establishes exactly the relationship in which those “people and peasants and our (i.e., royal) arable land workers who will begin to live in the monastery (i.e., in the graveyard) of Ilyinsky and in the entire estate of St. should stand in relation to the clergy of Ilyinsky. Prophet Elijah." All these people surrender to the power of the priests and the deacon of the Elijah Church in all their judicial matters, excluding murder and red-handed robbery. At the same time, the tax-paying peasants of the Ilinsk Church are freed from all jurisdiction of the princely officials - the Novotorzhkovsk authorities and tiuns. The latter themselves do not personally judge these people for anything other than murder and robbery, nor do they use food from them, nor do they send their subordinates to them - drivers and diverters. In cases of mixed jurisdiction, i.e. when one of the litigants is people of the church estate, and the other is people from the city, volost, or palace peasants and arable land workers, the trial takes place mixed, composed of a) authorities and tiuns and b) Idyinsky priests and deacons. All income items coming to the judges from the litigants - “prosud” - according to the common law of a mixed court, are divided into genders: the tiuna authorities take from the right and wrong sides; priests and deacon - from right and wrong - theirs 6. The protection of all the listed benefits and privileges is assigned responsibility to the clerk of the Konstantinovsky village. He must “take care of them and all insult and sale will be exacted from him.” It is not known how the life of the Ilyinsky clergy, which was so well organized in material and civil relations, flowed during the 16th century. The five proposed petitions below take us straight to the second half of the 17th century. According to these petitions, the situation of the Ilyinsky churchyard and its clergy in the 17th century appears as follows. For some time after the “Lithuanian devastation”, the Ilyinskaya Church “stood without singing - empty”; there was no priest or parishioners who could take care of her and beat her with her forehead about her rights, which rested on such a solid foundation as the letter of grant of the formidable king. It is not known how long this abomination of desolation lasted. But then, probably a short time after the Polish pogrom, the parishioners of the Ilyinsky Church took care of the Ilyinsky Church and from that moment it was already titled, called “royal pilgrimage,” but in reality it fell into a number of ordinary parish churches. The parish people, next to the dilapidated church, are building two new churches of the Prophet Elijah and the Sign of the Mother of God in the churchyard, equipping them with utensils and bells, choosing a priest for them (already one)”: all this is a parish building for the entire Ilinskaya volost, which consisted of more than 200 peasant households that belonged to various landowners and monasteries. As can be seen from here, the position of the church by turning it into an ordinary parish, if not improved, then in any case did not worsen. But this is not what should be said about her clergy, although the petitioners, apparently, do not speak about this clearly and directly. The fact is that after the Lithuanian devastation, the Ilinskaya volost underwent a complete transformation in state and administrative terms. It ceased to be the patrimony of the Moscow Tsar and consisted of the “local lands” of various, mainly Novotorzh, landowners. Now there was neither the clerk of the Konstantinovsky village - the defender of the Ilyinsky priests, nor the volosts and tiuns of Novotorzhsky, with whom in the old days the Ilyinsky priests and the deacon judged their courts and shared the food. In place of these good old neighbors, various landowners appeared, and priest Ilyinsky (one, and not two - as before) from a patrimonial owner now turned into a servant of his parishioners, thanks to their “handy” he received a place for himself. Nevertheless, even as a parish clergy, the clergy of the Ilyinsky Church probably would not have lived badly at all - for the Ilyinsky Church in the entire volost was only one parish and cemetery church - if the Ilyinsky churchyard had not suffered a misfortune, soon after the Lithuanian devastation, which the priests and parishioners of the Ilyinsky Church, the archimandrite and the abbess had been trying to get rid of for half a century Novotorzhskie The fact is that, taking advantage of the desolation and defenseless position of the Ilyinsky churchyard, which came after the Lithuanian devastation, one of the landowners, Pyotr Nikiforovich Sverchkov, planned to annex the entire churchyard and lands granted to him by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich to his estate. In 1626–27 “Volost scribe” Vladimir Poltinin traveled around the Ilyinsky volost, compiling scribe books. Sverchkov became friends with him; according to the established friendship, Poltinin wrote down for Sverchkov, on his estate, the village and churchyard of Ilyinsky, and “disclaimed” the two wastelands of the Ilyinsky Church from it, designating them simply as “circumventing the land” due to their desolation. At that time, the Ilyinskaya Church stood without singing - empty, there was no one to stand up for its interests and it passed into the actual possession of first Peter Sverchkov, then his son Sergei and his grandchildren - the Sergeev children. Perhaps such a transformation of the royal pilgrimage into a landowner's property would even go unnoticed; but the gentlemen Sverchkovs used their incorrectly acquired property too cruelly for some time and aroused opposition against themselves from other landowners of the Ilyinsky volost and all the parishioners of the Ilyinsky church. According to the testimony of parishioners (in petitions Nos. 3 and 4), Sergei Sverchkov and his children, both landowners and “little people and peasant women,” were not allowed into the Ilya Church, they were not allowed to bury the dead in the graveyard and correct other church requirements in the Ilya Church. The petitioners cry to the sovereign that because of the Sverchkovs’ insult they simply have to die without repentance. 7 How early the struggle with the Sverchkovs began is impossible to determine with accuracy, based on the monuments attached below. According to petition No. 3, Pyotr Sverchkov also beat the sovereign with his forehead about strengthening the Ilyinsky churchyard behind him. But what prompted him to take care of strengthening what he actually owned - whether it was his own desire to give his possession the character of legally fortified property, or a protest against his wrongful seizure of church property by its defenders - is not visible from the petition. According to our monuments, the red tape for the disputed property begins with the petition of priest Fyodor (“Priest Fedorishche”) dated December 20, 1671 and stretches through the two subsequent reigns of Fyodor Alekseevich and John and Peter Alekseevich. The disputing parties in it are, firstly, the priest and parishioners of the Elias Church (nobles and elders - representatives of the parishioners - peasants); they are then joined by Archimandrite Tarasius of the Novotorzhsky Boris and Gleb Monastery and Abbess of the Resurrection Convent Praskovya; 8 secondly, the landowners Sverchkovs: Sergei and his children; their side is apparently held by hystericals. The subject of the lawsuit is the Ilyinsky Pogost or Ilyinsky village and two wastelands, Poporyshino and Dorki, granted a charter and assigned to the Ilyinsky Church as property. The evidence on which both parties base their right to the disputed possession is: a) for the first 1) Charter of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, 2) scribe books from the year 96 (1588) and 3) material evidence of undisputed ownership (parish building - two new churches, equipped with utensils and bells, selection and maintenance of the priest); b) for the second 1) the scribal book of 1626–27, 2) the ambiguity and generality of the scribal books of 1588 and some others, which will be indicated below. Gradually the development of the litigation is presented in this form. Petitions (Nos. 2 and 3), submitted to Alexei Mikhailovich in 1671 and 72 by priest Fyodor and parishioners of the Elias Church, were not successful. The failure, however, only prompted the defenders of church property to intensify their search for further means. The above-mentioned archimandrite and abbess join the priest and parishioners as plaintiffs-petitioners, representing two common petitions, first to Fyodor Alekseevich, then to Tsars John and Peter Alekseevich. In the petition to the latter, the petitioners complain that the gentlemen Sverchkovs do not allow landowners or peasants to go to church, as a result of which they are forced to travel to distant parishes, what was the offense, in their opinion, “the work of the clerk Fyodor Konstantinov,” who had already died, having transferred the controversial case to the clerk Rodion Ovsov. Subsequently, the petitioners ask, firstly, for a decree approving the disputed property behind the church on the basis of an ancient charter; secondly, they are asking for the controversial case to be taken away from clerk Ovsov and for the case to be transferred to someone else. And this petition was not successful. In all likelihood, the opposing party, with the assistance of the clerks, managed to weaken the strength of the grounds presented by the plaintiffs, and their petition was left without consequences. The assumption is based on two further petitions (Nos. 5 – and 6) to the same sovereigns from the parishioners of the Elias Church and the priest Gabriel (“Prest Gavrilishche”). In the first of these petitions, which is quite lengthy, the petitioners try to strengthen the evidence, and for this purpose, in all detail, firstly, they reveal the history of ownership of the disputed property, and secondly, they assert the position that in the entire Ilyinskaya volost there was and is only one Ilyinskaya church and there was and is not another; thirdly, that on the estate of Elizariy Volodeninsky, which later passed into the possession of the Sverchkovs, the Ilyinsky graveyard never existed. In particular, the history of ownership of the disputed property is revealed as follows. The Ilyinsky churchyard with the church of the prophet Elijah and the wastelands has been a royal pilgrimage site (and a royal village) since ancient times. It was originally owned by priests Andrei and Nikon and deacon Roman, and then by their priests and clerks. This ownership was based on the charter of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, which then received “renewals” from the Great Sovereigns and Tsars: Fedor Ioanovich and Boris Fedorovich. And in the scribe books of 1588 it was written, albeit “silently”, the Ilyinsky churchyard and - that it was near the church of the prophet Elijah, and that with it there was church land and a wasteland. Then, after the Lithuanian ruin, an unfair deal followed between Sverchkov and Poltinin, as a result of which the Ilyinsky churchyard was taken over by the Sverchkovs. The petition tells the following details of this transaction. Pyotr Sverchkov supposedly presented to Poltinin a “separate statement” about the estate of Elizariy Volodeninsky, according to which the Ilyinsky graveyard was listed as belonging to this estate, and since the latter had come into the possession of Pyotr Sverchkov by the time of Vladimir Poltinin’s arrival, the Ilyinsky graveyard also went to him; That’s why Vladimir Poltinin wrote it down for Sverchkov. As for the wastelands belonging to the Ilyinsky churchyard, since they were empty at that time, Poltinin “attributed” them, i.e. left as if they belonged to no one. Reporting these details, the petition notes that neither Elizary of Volodeninsky nor any of the other landowners ever lived or visited that graveyard, and Pyotr Sverchkov did not have any fortresses on that graveyard, and as for the “separate extract”, then such “separate extracts are not ordered to be believed and it is not indicated to write for the landowners on them.” Having thus refuted the meaning of the scribal books of 1626, as compiled according to a “false fairy tale,” the petition then points out as the basis for its right – the actual ownership of that graveyard, which belonged to them, the parish people, and not the Sverchkovs: “and now on that graveyard there are two churches - the building is ours, the parish people and the entire Ilyinsky volost, and not their Sverchkovs.” Then the petition certifies the fact that in the entire Ilyinsky volost there has always been one Ilyinsky churchyard, exactly the same one that was written in the scribe books of 1588 and falsely - in the estate of P. Sverchkov, there was and is not another; mentions the petition of the priest Fyodor, written in 1671, and along with the petition there was also presented an exact list of the original letter of grant that remained with him, the priest, and that a decree on this matter has not been issued until now. Having outlined these circumstances, the petitioners ask the kings “not to violate the ancient charter, that churchyard will continue to be in the Church of Elijah the Prophet and belong to the priests and clergy as before, and those wastelands that are registered and lie empty - they will celebrate the same Elijah churchyard.” It is unknown when the litigation ended. But that it ended in favor of the Ilyinsky Church is evident from the fact that the Ilyinsky clergy still owns the wastelands listed in Ivan Vasilyevich’s charter. No. 1st. Letter of commendation from Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible to Ilyinsky priests and deacon “Behold, the Great Prince Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia granted in his estate in the Novotorzhsky district in Ilyinsk Guba his priests, priest Andrei, and priest Nikon, and deacon Roman, who serve with the holy prophet Elijah in my palace village in Konstantinovskoye, or who, according to them, other priests and deacons at that church teach serve; They beat me with their foreheads, but they said: they had a letter from our father, Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of All Russia, granted by the archbishop's ten-tenants, and their letter was burned, and I should welcome them, give them my own letter of grant, a new one, and I am the Grand Prince Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia, priest Andrei, and priest Nikon, and deacon Roman granted: he gives the lord......the archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov for the Feast of Christ two Moscow hryvnias every year...... for the tithes and the zaeschiki and with all the duties for Peter's and for the Christmas stern and for the collected marten, and to pay that tribute in Torzhok and for those priests and for the deacon to the mistress of the tithes or the zaeschik of the Konstantinovsky village, the clerk, and the registered and inspected with that tribute should be carried to the Archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov by those priests of mine taxing...... and the governors and ten-dealers and zaeschiks and all the envoys do not go to those priests and the deacon and do not send anything, nor their duties for them, nor do they receive any: neither the autumn, nor the winter district ten-decade duties, nor the pre-patrimonial duties, nor the levy, nor the blessed martens, nor the food, nor the sexton, nor the recruiting duties, but the governors and tithes of the archbishop bought and my clerk of the Konstantinovsky village should not judge those priests and deacons in anything, but in spiritual matters the Archbishop himself will judge those of my priests, and who cares about those priests, besides spiritual matters, and otherwise I judge them, I am the great prince or my butlers of Tver, but he will come from whom according to those of my priests the Grand Duke's palace bailiff or the archbishop's bailiff of Novgorod in spiritual matters, and they write to them two dates a year: in winter on the same day after the baptism of Christ, and in summer on the same day after Peter's days; but they don’t receive anything from their bail, except for those two terms, they don’t impose much other terms on them, and whoever imposes a term on them that is not according to their letters of grant, and I did not order them to go to those terms, and whoever issues a non-judicial letter to them for the wrong terms, and that non-judgmental letter is not a non-judgmental one; and from the banners...... and from the crowns of their peasants of the Konstantinovsky village, who from those priests in the parish of the flock of the prophet Elijah, were ordered to give the archbishop's tithe from the first crown three money, for a bigamist an altyn, from a triple-born two altyns, and more than that they do not give anything, but pay that tribute from the banners and from the crowns, those priests having gathered together The archbishop of the ten-year-old in Torzhok with my clerk of the Konstantinovsky village, like a meat-eater giving a blowjob, how much the meat-eater takes, they will pay; I also granted those of my priests Ilyinsky and the deacon that theirs, the lands of the church flock of the prophet Ilya: the village of Ilyinskaya, the village of Pinyagin, half of Verbilov, the wasteland of Poporishyn, the repairs of Dorka on the Lokatenka River; in those villages and in the patrimony and in the monastery of the flock of the prophet Elijah, people and peasants, our arable farmers and the Novotorzhsky rulers and their tyuni, those of my priests and deacons and their people and peasants and all the ecclesiastics, will not judge in anything except murder and red-handed robbery, and their fodder on them and on their people and peasants and on everything They don’t accept the church ranks and don’t send anything to them, and the conveyancers and otvodniks don’t take their exactions on them, don’t come to them for anything, but they know and judge those of their people and peasants and the entire church ranks. Ilinsky priests Andrei and Nikon, and the deacon Roman themselves in everything, or to whomever they order, and what happens is a mixed trial of those people and peasants and all the ecclesiastical ranks in what is the case with the Gorotsky people, or volost or palace peasants and arable lands of our Novotorzhsky and volost and tiuns of those their people and peasants are judged, and the Ilyinsky priests judge with them, and with justice the divider is divided into floors, whether the city member or the volost is right or wrong, and he is in truth and in guilt to the Ilyinsky priests and deacon; and who cares about those people and the peasants and the whole church, other than other people, what do they care about, otherwise our palace workers travel around them, and they give them the same two terms a year according to the letter; and whoever harms those priests and deacons, their people and peasants and the entire church account through this letter, but the clerk of my Kostyantinovsky village does not take care of them, and that insult and sale to the clerk of the Kostyantinovsky village; and if those priests show this document to the Archbishop of Novgorod and the governor and the tithe and the reserve and all the tax collectors, and they do not give anything from it; and the certificate was given in Moscow in the summer of October on the day.” Note On the original letter of honor it was written on the back: “Great Prince Ivan Vasilyevich,” and then “Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, clerk Yuri Fedorov.” No. 2. Priest Fyodor's petition to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich “To the Tsar Sovereign and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat is beaten with his forehead by your poor pilgrim of the Novotorzhsky district of the Ilyinsky churchyard, priest Fedorishche. I lived as your pilgrim at Your royal pilgrimage church, the Church of Elijah the Prophet, and to that Sovereign Church of God for the entire churchyard was given a charter from the previous Sovereigns with wastelands in the Novotorzhsky district of the same Ilyinsky churchyard: the Penyagino wasteland, and half of the Verbilov wasteland, the Poporyshino wasteland, the wasteland of Dorki on Lokotenka River; and as the oxen scribe Volodimir Poltinin rode, and at that time the Sovereign, the Church of God stood without singing - empty; and that scribe Volodimir Poltinin wrote the entire churchyard for the landowner Pyotr Nikiforov's son Sverchkov, and registered the wasteland; and now, O Lord, Your royal pilgrimage, the Church of God the Prophet Elijah, stands on local land, and I, a pilgrim, live on local land, and I, Your pilgrim, have nothing to feed myself with. Merciful Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat, perhaps I am his poor pilgrim, the Sovereign commanded that wasteland to celebrate and refuse to the Church of God the prophet Elijah, and in the graveyard the Sovereign against his Great Sovereign decree and the conciliar code that You, the Great Sovereign, will indicate. Tsar Sovereign, please have mercy.” The original petition is marked: “December 179 on the 20th day.” No. 3. Petition from parishioners of the Church of Elijah the Prophet to Alexei Mikhailovich “To the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat is beaten with the brow by your servants Novotorzhsky landowners, Ilyinsky parishioners noblemen Borisko Ermolaev son of Svechin, and Senka Andreev son Shishkov, Ivashka Mikhailov son Tsipletev, Fetka Andreev son Shishkov, Fedoseiko Iovlev son of Negonovsky, and your orphans of the Novotorzhsky district, the patrimony of the Boris and Gleb Monastery, the peasants of the village of Gubki, the headman Fetka Alexandrov, and the kisser Artyushka Ilyin, Vaska Alekseev and all the peasants, and the Resurrection patrimony the headman Mitka Alekseev, Proshka Filipov, Vaska Ivanov and all the peasants Ilyinsky parishioners: in the current Sovereign, in 179, the Great Sovereign of our Ilyinskaya parish, priest Fyodor, beat with his forehead about the church field land and about the church wastelands against your 9 Great Sovereign grant of letters and old scribe books; and now the Sovereign of that Ilyinsky churchyard and church field land and wastelands are registered according to new scribe books, letters and measures of Volodimir Poltinin, and clerk Ivan Fedorov in 134 and 135; to that church of God's church land, the scribe did not write anything, but registered the wasteland, and the churchyard of the village of Ilyinskaya wrote after him Peter Mikiforov's son Sverchkov as a friend to Peter, and that Peter Mikiforov, son of Sverchkov, withheld your (that?) Sovereign's letter of grant and old scribe's books, and he beat Peter with his forehead on the church land, leaving the father of his estate Mikifora Ivanov's son Sverchkov, and at that time there was no singing at the church of God, it stood empty without singing, and there were no parishioners, there was no one to beat with their brows, because since the Lithuanian ruin and now that church land, his son Sergei Petrov, son of Sverchkov, owns it, and the church stands on local land and the former landowners on that church land beat You the Great with their brows It is false for the Sovereign to call that church land a bypassing land, and that land is not at all church land, and not local, and after your (that?) Sovereign's charter, the scribes Ermol Zalevetskoy, Andrei Klabukov and Prince Merkuley Shcherbatov wrote against your (that?) Sovereign's charter, the entire churchyard was sent for the church. Merciful Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat, perhaps we are more than our slaves and orphans, ordered the Sovereign to dedicate those wastelands to the Church of God, and in the graveyard, that You, Sovereign, will indicate so that we Your servants and orphans will not die without repentance, and Your Sovereign will have prayers The Church of God cannot exist without singing. Tsar Sovereign, please have mercy!” No. 4th. Petition to John and Peter Alekseevich of Archimandrite Tarasius, Jegumenya Paraskeva and others “As the Tsar Sovereign and Grand Duke John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat beat your pilgrims from the Torzhok Boris and Gleb Monastery Archimandrite Tarasy with his brethren, and the Resurrection Maiden Monastery Hegumenia Paraskeviya with the sisters, and your servants Boriska Ermolaev son Svechin, Senka, Ivashka, Fetka Andreev's children, and Afonka Gerasimov's son, and Yakushka Alekseev's son Shishkova, and Fetka Mironov's son Sumin, Fedoseika Iovlev's son Negonovsky. We beat our heads, pilgrims and servants, to your brother your Sovereign, blessed memory of V. Sovereign and V. To Prince Fyodor Alekseevich of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat about the church land of your Sovereign's pilgrimage to the Church of Elijah the Prophet against the former Great Sovereigns, a charter was granted that that church land, the Ilyinsky graveyard, was written according to a false fairy tale by the landowner and to us pilgrims and slaves your decree to this day is not, but they own that church land Sergeev’s children are Sverchkovs, but your servants and little people and peasants are not allowed to go to that church and they go to distant parishes, and then the Sovereigns were the case of the clerk Fedor Konstantinov, and he Fedor died, and now that case is with Rodion Ovsov. Merciful Sovereigns, Tsars, Grand Dukes John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich of all great and small and white Russia, Autocrats, please grant us pilgrims, your servants: command the Sovereigns of that land from time immemorial, against the charter of the church, to continue to be at your royal pilgrimage at the Church of Elijah the Prophet and to own that church priest and clergy, and Sergei's children The Sovereigns do not order the Crickets to take possession of that land and take that business from the clerk Ovsov Rodion to another clerk. Kings and Sovereigns have mercy!” No. 5. Petition to the Sovereign and Grand Dukes John and Peter Alekseevich of the parishioners of the Church of the Prophet Elijah The Tsar Sovereign and Grand Duke John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich of all great and small and white Russia are beaten with the autocrat by the foreheads of your slaves of the Novotorskaya district of the Ilyinsky graveyard parishioners, the church of Elijah the prophet, Boriska Ermolaev son Svechin, Senka, Ivashka, Fetka Andreev's children, Afonka Gerasimov's son, Yakushka Alekseev's son, the Shishkovs, Fetka Mironov's son Sulin, Fedoseika Iovlev's son Negonovsky, and your orphans of the Borisoglebsk monastery, the peasants of the village of Gubki, the village of Pyatnykha, the elder Foka Makarov and his comrades, and the Resurrection monastery, the village of Vesok, the village of Ivantseva, the elder Pavelka Mikhailov and his comrades. Since ancient times, your Royal pilgrimage was the churchyard of Ilyinskaya and there was the Church of Elijah the Prophet, and that churchyard and wastelands were owned by that church. Your State pilgrims priests Andrei, yes Nikon, and deacon Roman, and whoever was after them, and church clergymen; and they were given to priests Andrei and Nikon, and to deacon Roman, a letter of honor from the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of all Russia, and on that letter the renewal of the Great Sovereigns: the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich of all Russia, the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Boris Fedorovich of all Russia, that The priests and church clerks were ordered to own the land and the graveyard and the wastelands, and whoever would be in that church of Elijah the Prophet for them. And in the past, Sovereigns, in the year 96, the scribe Prince Merkuly Shcherbatov wrote that graveyard silently near the Church of Elijah the Prophet and the church land and wasteland, and there was no one to announce that letter, because after the Lithuanian devastation that Church of Elijah the Prophet and the parish were empty - there was no priest and parishioners, and, like the scribes were in the 133rd year, the scribe Volodymyr Poltinin and that churchyard of Elijah the Prophet and the church land wrote for the landowner behind Novotorzhets for Pyotr Sverchkov on the estate on Evo Petrovaya, as if according to a separate extract, the Elizarovsky estate of Volodeninsky, and for Elizary Volodeninsky that Ilyinsky graveyard and for no one else was on the estate and the priests of the church did not own that graveyard Elijah the Prophet and they lived as church clerks, and not he Elizariy, and none of the other landowners lived or visited in that churchyard and in the village of Ilyinskaya, and the scribes were not ordered to believe such separate extracts and were not instructed to write for the landowner; But Peter didn’t have any fortresses in that churchyard, and there was no one to challenge him - there was no priest and no parishioners, and that church stood empty. And which Sovereigns gave the wasteland to that churchyard of the Church of Elijah the Prophet, and those wastelands he the scribe wrote for no one, lay empty. And now the Sovereigns have built two churches on that churchyard - your Royal pilgrimage: the Church of Elijah the Prophet and another of the Signs of the Mother of God, and the third stands empty, because it is dilapidated, and the priests and clerics in those churches have those churches and church utensils and bells - our parish building, the entire Ilyinsky volost, and not their Sverchkovs, and that Sovereigns are the grandsons of the Petrovs with church land The Sverchkovs own it and don’t let the church clergymen live in the churchyard and don’t tell us to live in the graveyard near the church, and they don’t tell us your serfs, your orphans, to come to that church, and they don’t tell us to bury our parents, but as we built those churches, we called the priest and the clergymen on that church land, and their father Fedorov and the children didn’t argue, and there were no petitions from them that that graveyard was their local land, and that scribe Volodimir Poltinin wrote that graveyard and all the church land behind it on Peter's estate and therefore in his wrong letter that, Your Tsar's eternal pilgrimage from time immemorial and the special parish and graveyard of the Church of Elijah the Prophet, has now become on their local land - and then he wrote without consulting the scribe books of 96 according to the wrong copy, and in those Sovereign books 96 year that churchyard and wasteland was written that was the village of Ilyinskaya and Penyagino, also, from the wasteland to the church of Elijah the Prophet and that Sovereign Ilyinskaya volost is written in the scribe books at that church of Elijah the Prophet confessed by the Ilyinskaya volost and in that Ilyinskaya volost of different monasteries and landowners there are more than two hundred households, and in that Ilyinskaya volost only it, your royal pilgrimage, one church of Elijah the prophet and the oprichch of that churchyard of the church of Elijah the prophet that the scribe wrote for the landowner, there is no graveyard and church land and it comes to us slaves and your orphans and the oprichch of that church of Elijah the prophet has nowhere to go, because other churches are removed from us and have become in other volosts. And in the past, the Sovereigns of 179 beat the blessed memory of your father, the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of all great and small and white Russia, to the Autocrat of that church, priest Fyodor, about that church land, and from that letter was taken from him by the hand to the case, having coped with the original list, and the original letter was given to him by the priest and that the matter of the decree was not carried out, and he died, and now the Great Sovereign of the same church is beaten with his brow on that land by the priest and the clergy in that matter of the decree. Merciful Kings and Sovereigns and Grand Dukes John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich of all great and small and white Russia, Autocrats, have mercy on us slaves and your orphans, do not order the Sovereigns to violate that charter of the former great Sovereigns from the scribal books of 96 and to that church from the time immemorial of the eternal land from the Church of God to take away and shepherd their slaves and orphans of all Ilyinsky volost, from time immemorial, the eternal parishioners of Elijah the Prophet should be excommunicated from that church and from their parents, and the Sovereigns order that churchyard to continue to have everything at their Royal pilgrimage at the Church of Elijah the Prophet and be in possession of the priests and clergymen of the church as before, and which Sovereigns are registered in the wasteland and are lying empty that wasteland, order the Sovereigns to continue to celebrate the same Ilyinsky a graveyard, so that your Tsar's pilgrimage does not become desolate and we serfs and your orphans and our little people and peasant women do not die without repentance, and behind him Fyodor and his father's brother their estate is already a lot. Kings, Sovereigns, have mercy, please!” No. 6th. Petition to the Tsars John and Peter Alekseevich of the Church of Elijah the Prophet Priest Gabriel “The Tsar Sovereign and Grand Duke John (and Peter) Alekseevich (am) of all great and small and white Russia, the Autocrat, beat with their foreheads the pilgrims of your Novotorzhsky district of the Ilinsk volost of the church of Elijah the prophet priest Gavrilishche with the clergy of the church of that church of Elijah the prophet. In the past, Sovereigns, 189, with the blessing of His Eminence Cornelius, Metropolitan of Velikago Novograd and Velikiye Luki and through the petition of that Ilyinsky volost parishioners, I was placed as your pilgrim to that church of Elijah the Prophet, and to that Sovereign of the Church of Elijah the Prophet, the former priests Andrei, and Nikon, and Deacon Roman were given the former great The Sovereigns are granted a charter: they were ordered, and whoever, according to them, will be the clerk of that church, that churchyard and the land and villages that are now wastelands, to own the Church of Elijah the Prophet, and now the Sovereigns, Fyodor Sergeev, son of Sverchkov, lives on that graveyard with his brothers, and he owns that churchyard, everything and the land. Fedor and his brothers, and we, your pilgrims, live on that graveyard near that church of Elijah the Prophet They don’t allow that churchyard and church land to be owned, because the scribe Volodimir Poltinin in the year 133, unable to cope with the previous Great Sovereigns’ charter and with the old scribe’s Novotorzhsky books in 96, the scribe Prince Merkulya Shcherbatov, wrote for the landowner for their grandfather Felorov for Peter The Sverchkovs in the estate and that church wrote on the local land, but there was no one to beat on that land, everything was empty - there was no priest and no parishioners, and that Sovereign church from the ancient times Your royal pilgrimage was a special churchyard of the Ilyinskaya volost and the structure of the entire Ilyinskaya volost and the structure of that churchyard of Elijah the prophet, and not their Sverchkovs. And in the past Sovereigns in 179, the former priest Fedor of that church Elijah the Prophet beat with his forehead the father of your Sovereign of blessed memory to the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of all great and small and white Russia to the Autocrat according to that former Great Sovereigns granted a charter about that church land and about the wastelands, and from that the letter of grant was taken to the case with the list for his father Fedor's hand, and he priest Fedor died, but the decree on that matter was not issued to him: and now the Sovereigns beat you with their foreheads to the Great Sovereign about the same land and the wastelands with the entire parish of that Ilyinskaya volost and brought to that case a petition in hand, so that that churchyard would be according to the former Great Sovereigns' letter of grant and according to arctic fox books in 96 with a special churchyard as before to that church land, because from time immemorial they have been eternal parishioners of that churchyard of Elijah the Prophet and besides that churchyard and parish church there is no in the entire Ilyinsky volost; and in that Ilyinskaya volost the Sovereigns have parishioners of monastery peasants and landowners, more than two hundred households of the oprichch of nobles, and we, your pilgrims, at that church of Elijah the Prophet without that church land in the entire Ilyinskaya volost (?). Merciful Sovereigns Tsars and Grand Dukes John Alekseevich and Peter Alekseevich of all great and small Russia Autocrats, please us your pilgrims, order the Sovereigns, according to that former Great Sovereign charter and scribe books of 96, to be that Ilyinsky graveyard special as before and so that from time immemorial your royal pilgrimage to the Church of Elijah the Prophet will be according to the former parish church of the entire Ilyinsky volost, and not on local land, and the Lord commands us to own that church land, to your pilgrims and wastelands. Kings and Sovereigns, have mercy!” The original petition was marked: “October 192 on the 30th day.” A.Yu. No. 286. Stoglav, question. 7. The originals of the documents printed below were destroyed 15-16 years ago by the rector of the Elias Church (already deceased). The motivation for their destruction, as we were told, was their dilapidation and practical uselessness, since exact copies of them are supposedly in the church annals. The village of Ilyinskoye is located in Novotorzhkovsky district, 8 versts from the Ostashkovo station of the Nikolaev railway. This point is also included in letter of complaint No. 149. This privilege is also established by Charter No. 149. According to Letter of Complaint No. 149, the “priests” of the Tsar’s villages put on trial only “marshwort women and sextons and the entire church clergy.” See Petition. No. 3 at the end. The peasants of these two monasteries were part of the Ilinsky parish; This explains the participation of the archimandrite and the abbess in the litigation. Probably should read toya: for priest Fedor referred to the letter of grant of the former sovereigns, and not of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.